Method and system for automatic vacant parking place locator

ABSTRACT

An Automatic-vacant-parking-place locator (AVPPL) system and method in which a community member may get (manually or automatically) information on a vacant parking place in an area he/she is searching for a parking place. Further an AVPPL community member may provide information on vacant parking place in different areas, he/she is driving through, to other AVPPL community members and/or to an AVPPL mutual database.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is Patent Cooperation Treaty application being filed inthe Israeli Receiving Office claiming the benefit of the prior filingdate of the United States provisional application for patent that wasfiled on Dec. 14, 2011 and assigned Ser. No. 61/570,637, whichapplication is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of vacant parking placelocators and more particularly to automatic vacant parking locators.

BACKGROUND

An operating system (OS) is a set of programs that mange a computer'shardware resources and provides a plurality of common services fordifferent application software.

Mobile operating system, also known as: mobile OS, mobile softwareplatform, and/or handheld operating system are the operating systemsthat control a mobile device. Mobile OS are similar in principle to anoperating system such as WINDOWS, MAC OS X, and/or LINUX distributionsthat control a desktop computer or laptop, for example.

Exemplary devices running mobile operating system: are smartphones,personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet computers, informationappliances, mobile devices, and/or wireless devices. Some of the aboveare part of a group of what are sometimes referred to as smart devices,which may also include embedded systems.

Exemplary Operating systems that can be found on smartphones, mobile OSpowered tablet computers, and other mobile wireless devices can include:GOOGLE's ANDROID, APPLE's iOS, RIM's BLACKBERRY OS, MICROSOFT's WINDOWSphone, LINUX, HP's webOS, SAMSUNG's BADA, NOKIA's MeeGo, among manyothers.

Application software also known as “app” or “application” are softwaredesigned to help a user perform specific tasks. Exemplary applicationmay be: office suits, graphic software, media players, etc.

Mobile applications are software usually designed to run on smartdevices such as, but not limited to: smartphones, tablet computers, etc.Mobile applications may be available to purchase or to be freedownloaded through application-distribution platforms, which aretypically operated by an owner of the mobile operating system such as,but not limited to: APPLE store referred to as Apps Store, ANDROIDmarket, etc. Mobile applications may be downloaded from the platform toa targeted device. Exemplary targeted device may be: an iPhone, aBlackBerry, etc.

An application server is a software framework that provides anenvironment in which applications can run, no matter what theapplication are or what they do. It is dedicated to the efficientexecution of procedures (programs, routines, scripts, etc.) forsupporting a construction of applications. Application server may act asa set of components accessible to a software developer through an API(application program interface) defined by a platform itself, forexample.

Today's technology, supported by mobile wireless devices and theaccompanied cellular infrastructure, may enable one or morecommunity-driven applications. A community-driven application may be asoftware application executed in at least two mobile wireless devices ofat least two community members and which can automatically sendinformation to other mobile devices of some community members, using thecellular infrastructure and the application server, to use thatinformation for their benefit, and vice versa.

A user of the community based application initially execute theapplication on his mobile wireless device, which in turn can establishan on-line connection with an application server using the cellularinfrastructure and send and/or receive information, to and/or from theapplication server, for example. Community-driven applications areusually free to download and use, thus appealing to many users todownload and enlarge the community of users that can add information.

SUMMARY OF DISCLOSURE

In growing number of cities around the world more families are havingthe capability to purchase and own a vehicle. Some places the capabilityhas grown such that a family may own a plurality of vehicles. Exemplaryvehicles may be: an automobile; a truck; a bus; a motorcycle; bike; etc.Henceforth the description drawings and claims of the present disclosurethe term vehicle may represent the above group and the like.

The growing capability of owning vehicle(s) increases the amount ofvehicles in the streets of many cities around the world. This may causethat the amount of vehicles on a road/street exceeds the amount ofvacant parking places.

Thus drivers spend some of their driving time in search for a vacantparking place. Sometimes the driver may add a great amount of time (40minutes, for example) to his/her drive just for the search of a vacantparking place.

When driving in search of a vacant parking place, one may add more airpollution; may be less attentive to the road thus may increase the rateof car accidents; may waste more fuel (a valuable finite resource); mayadd tension and irritate other drivers on the road thus more potentialfor accidents (vehicle wrecks); The above and more may decrease humanquality of life.

Decrease in human's quality of life may be due to: frustrated and angrydrivers searching for a vacant parking place when they are in a hurry;tensed and worried drivers that got lost while searching for a vacantparking place; unsatisfied drivers because there are too many vehicleson the road (since some are still in search of a vacant parking place)causing traffic and/or driving slow; more death or injuries do toun-concentrated drivers on the road; more money spent on fuel instead ofother things; etc.

The above-described deficiencies do not intend to limit the scope of theinventive concepts of the present disclosure in any manner. They arepresented for illustration only.

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure provide a novel systemand method of a novel automatic-vacant-parking-place locator (AVPPL).Exemplary automatic-vacant-parking-place locator (AVPPL) system maycomprise: an AVPLL application server; an AVPPL data base; and aplurality of AVPPL community members.

AVPPL community members may each have: a vehicle, a GPS, a camera, an online connection to a server, and a connection to an AVPPL application.

Some exemplary embodiments of an automatic-vacant-parking-place locator(AVPPL) system and method may utilize an AVPPL community member'swireless mobile device such as, but not limited to a smartphone. AnAVPPL community unity member's wireless mobile device may include: acamera, a GPS, one or more digital maps, and an online connection to oneor more application servers, for example.

Exemplary wireless mobile device may be, but not limited to: APPLEiPhone, iPad, Samsung Galaxy series, and other smartphones usingoperating system such as but not limited to: iOS, ANDROID, WINDOWSMOBILE, SYMBIAN, and BLACKBERRY, PDAs, and so on.

Henceforth the description drawings and claims of the present disclosurethe term smartphone may represent a wireless mobile device comprising acamera, a location analyzer (GPS, cell location by cellphone, etc.) andan online connection to an application server. Further a smartphone mayhave an AVPPL application.

In some exemplary embodiments the smartphone may further comprise: acomputing core (CPU for example) together with a dedicatedcommunity-driven AVPPL application; one or more digital maps; a display(graphic, display for example); a G sensor; etc. In other embodimentsthe smartphone may have access to a computing core (CPU for example)together with a dedicated community-driven AVPPL application. In yetother embodiments a combination of both may be implemented.

An AVPPL community member may be required to place his/her smartphone ina place and way that its camera may face, at least partially, one of thestreet's sides where a car may park. Usually a rear camera will be used,thus the smartphone's main display will probably be facing the driver.Exemplary place to place the smartphone may be on a smartphone-holdingdevice associated to the vehicle's front window.

Thus while driving the camera may capture, as video and/or as picturestills, the streets' long side. The images (from video or picturestills) may be image processed by an AVPPL processing unit, according toteaching of the present disclosure. The AVPPL processing unit may beinside the smartphone and/or in a server. The images may be processed todetect automatically vacant parking places. The information on thelocated vacant parking place may then be automatically sent toward oneor more mutual databases for other AVPPL community members to be used.

An AVPPL community member may get (manually or automatically)information on a vacant parking place in an area he/she is searching fora parking place. Further an AVPPL community member may provideinformation on vacant parking place in different areas he/she is drivingthrough, to other AVPPL community members and/or to an AVPPL database.The information on vacant parking place may be sent and/or receivedautomatically or manually.

Exemplary automatic-vacant-parking-place locator (AVPPL) system andmethod may collect information from multiple AVPPL community memberswhich automatically and/or manually detect and locate vacant parkingplaces. AVPPL system and method may share the information with aplurality of AVPPL community members.

An exemplary AVPPL may detect and locate a vacant parking place to anAVPPL community member according the AVPPL community member'spreference, for example. Exemplary preferences may be a parking sizesimilar or bigger than the AVPPL community member's vehicle size, forexample.

Some exemplary AVPPL embodiments may further determine different detailson the detected and located vacant parking place. Different details suchas, but not limited to: is the parking legal; is the parking free ofcharge; the cost of an hour parking; and so on. Exemplary AVPPLembodiments may present to an AVPPL community member a plurality ofdifferent vacant parking places to choose from in a predefined order.

Exemplary presentation of the different vacant parking places may be by:graphical display and/or text messages on the AVPPL community member'ssmartphone. The predefined order of presentation of the located vacantparking places may be determined according to the AVPPL communitymember's preferable desires. Preferable desires such as, but not limitedto: first presenting parking places in a size above a predefined size,next the most “fresh” vacant place reported, next presenting parkingplaces free of charge, next presenting parking place nearest todestination, and so on.

Some exemplary AVPPL embodiment may build a statistical occupancydatabase. An exemplary statistical occupancy database may storestatistics on vacancy of parking places over the time of aday/week/weekend, and so on. This statistical occupancy database mayhelp an AVPPL community member seeking vacant parking place if thecommunity-driven AVPPL application may have no real-time, on-lineinformation, for example. The statistical occupancy database may bestored in an AVPPL server, for example and/or may be downloaded to anAVPPL community member's smartphone.

Further an exemplary embodiment of an AVPPL may detect and locate thevacant parking places before the AVPPL's community member has reachedhis/her destination. Exemplary AVPPL's application server may collectvacant parking locations from a plurality of other AVPPL communitymembers driving in proximity to the required destination. The AVPPL'sapplication server may determine the most appropriate vacant parkingplace for the AVPPL community member according to his/her pre-definedparking preferences (size, cost, etc.) The chosen vacant parking placemay then become the actually destination of that AVPPL community memberseeking parking.

Even further an exemplary embodiment of an AVPPL may plan theroute/course of that AVPPL community member seeking parking, in orderfor him/her to reach the located vacant parking place. An AVPPL mayfurther guide, in real-time, the AVPPL community member toward thelocated vacant parking place. Thus guide the AVPPL community membertoward his actual required destination. The guidance may be by audio, bysigns on a map on the smartphones screen, by text, and so on.

In some exemplary embodiments AVPPL community members may get picturesof vacant parking place, taken by other community member's AVPPLapplication, for example.

In some embodiments the process of information detected from a cameramay be processed by the AVPPL community members' smartphone itself. Inother exemplary embodiment the information may be fetched and processedby an AVPPL server. In yet other exemplary embodiments a combination ofboth may be implemented, and so on.

Information on located vacant parking place may be automatically sentand saved in one or more mutual AVPPL databases associated to one ormore AVPPL application servers. In some exemplary embodiments a mutualAVPPL database may be located in an AVPPL server's memory storage.

Information on located vacant parking place may be automatically sent toan AVPLL community member currently driving toward its location in orderto verify if it is still vacant. Furthermore, the AVPLL database mayautomatically remove a vacant location from the database after some timefrom the time it was reported, assuming it is no vacant anymore.

In some exemplary embodiments an AVPPL community member may downloadinformation to his/her smartphone on vacant parking places, in areashe/she requires to park, from the mutual AVPPL databases.

In exemplary embodiments in which the AVPPL guides an AVPPL communitymember toward a located parking place, the guidance may be implementedin different ways. Exemplary ways may be: by voice commands through thesmartphone's speaker, and/or by markings on the smartphone's display.Exemplary marking on the smartphone's display may be: a map where avacant parking has been located, and/or a list if parking placesutilizing street and building numbers as references, a path marked on adigital map, etc.

Exemplary voice commands may be: one or more names of streets and numberof building where a vacant parking place has been located andinformation on the parking (fees, size, proximity to requireddestination) and/or guiding commands toward the located vacant parkingplace, etc.

In some exemplary embodiments the markings on the maps of thesmartphone's maps may represent different types of parking informationon the map. For example, the color of a mark may represent the size ofthe vacant parking place. Another example of different markingrepresentation may be the intensity of the brightness of the mark. Forexample a vacant parking place that was located 1 minutes ago may bemore bright than a vacant parking place that was located 5 minutes ago(the brightness may slowly fade away as time passes); Another example ofdifferent marking representation may be the geometric shape of the markmay represent if the parking is free or not. For example a triangle is afree parking place; and so on.

Some exemplary embodiments of AVPPL may determine if the detected andlocated potential vacant parking place is: legal; free of charge; thecost for an hour parking; residence only parking allowed, exit of aprivate parking and so on, by different methods and system. Exemplarymethods and systems may be: image processing (detecting the colors thatthe sidewalk is colored, for example); utilizing information gotten fromcity council and/or a mapping service; etc. The information gotten fromcity council and/or a mapping service may be stored at an AVPPL Serverand/or on an AVPPL community member's smartphones memory storage.

Some exemplary embodiments of AVPPL image processing may take intoaccount different temporary obstacles. Obstacles such as, but notlimited to: car wipers, a person standing in a vacant parking place,etc. The AVPPL may decide that these temporary obstacles will not be aproblem for parking, and thus present the detected parking place asvacant. The AVPPL may further detect permanent obstacles such as, butnot limited to: pillar, trees, entrance to a parking lot, etc.

In some embodiments of an AVPPL a calibration phase may be required. Anexemplary calibration phase may comprise: tuning the placement of the aAVPPL community members' camera; determining the camera's parameters(focal number, lens distortion, frame rate for example); determining themaximum vehicle velocity the AVPPL community member may drive his/hervehicle when using the AVPPL; etc.

The calibration phase may be executed at the beginning of a drive;and/or when an AVPPL community member request to use the AVPPL database;and/or when first registering to an AVPPL community; and/or whendetection that a calibration is required; and so on.

In an embodiment of a calibration an AVPPL community member may berequested to download and print a designated-for-calibration markedpage. The AVPPL community member may be requested to take a picture ofthat paper using his/her smartphone's camera, at a specific position.Specific position may be in a certain distance and angle to a referencemarked point on the designated-for-calibration marked page, and thelike.

During the calibration and/or on a regular operation an AVPPL feedbackmechanism may be implemented. The AVPPL feedback may be executedautomatically by the AVPPL community member's smartphone; manually bythe AVPPL community member; by an AVPPL server; and/or a combination ofthem.

The feedback mechanism may image process the video and/or picturesreceived from a community members' camera and accordingly determine if:a change on the placement of the camera is required; and/or if the AVPPLcommunity member is needs to driver slower; etc.

The velocity of the community members' vehicle may be determined fromthe AVPPL community members' smartphones' GPS output. Thus when thecommunity members' vehicle exceeds a certain threshold velocity valuethe AVPPL may send a warning signal; etc.

The AVPPL feedback mechanism may request a re-calibration in differentcases. Exemplary case may be when a significant error is found between aknown length of an object detected by the camera and the estimation ofthat objects' length by AVPPL image processing. Other AVPPL feedbacksmay be warning signals. Exemplary warning signals may be if an AVPPLcommunity members' camera view is disturbed or blocked.

Exemplary embodiments of an AVPPL may encourage AVPPL community membersto begin operating the AVPPL as soon as they begin driving, by placingtheir smartphone camera at a smartphone holder where the camera isfacing the front window and thus enabling the AVPPL to start detectingand locating parking places along the way for other AVPPL communitymembers seeking to park at places the AVPPL community member pass alonghis/her drive.

Some exemplary embodiment of an AVPPL, the AVPPL community member'ssmartphone may automatically get commands and/or information from theAVPPL servers regarding areas that do not require detecting vacantparking places and/or areas that do require detecting vacant parkingplaces.

Exemplary areas that do not require search of vacant parking place maybe highways and/or remote unpopulated areas, for example. In areas whereit is not required to detect vacant parking place the AVPPL communitymember's smartphone's AVPPL application may be turned to idle, thus cansave battery life for the smartphone and reduce load on the system, etc.

Information on areas that do not require detecting vacant parking placesmay be sent automatically toward AVPPL community members' smartphone,for example. An AVPPL community member may then set his/her smartphoneaccordingly. In other exemplary embodiments the AVPPL application may beset automatically according to GPS information on the location of AVPPLcommunity member's vehicle.

The AVPPL may further be utilized for different applications and/orimplementation. Exemplary other applications and/or implementation maybe: utilizing the images gotten from cameras of AVPPL community members'cameras to database for police use. Police use, such as, but not limitedto: locating missing children, locating stolen cars, road accidentdocumentation, burglaries in areas filmed, etc.

Exemplary embodiments of an AVPPL may implement different methods andsystems to assess a size of a vacant parking place detected from acommunity member's camera. Some exemplary embodiments of an AVPPL mayutilize the community member's GPS's clock, or smartphone's internalclock, for timing when the vehicle of the member pass a beginning edgeof a detected vacant parking place and timing when the vehicle of themember pass the end edges of a detected vacant parking place.

AVPPL may further utilize the GPS for information on the vehicle'svelocity and location. AVPPL may then multiply the measured timedifference by the velocity of the vehicle and thus receive an estimationof the size of the vacant parking place for other community members thatwill seek parking in that area, for example.

Some exemplary embodiments of AVPPL may utilize the number of videoframes, received from the community member's camera, between the frontedge and the back edge of a detected vacant parking place when the AVPPLcommunity member's vehicle passes near it. Then AVPPL may multiply thetime difference, of the time frames, with the velocity of the AVPPLcommunity member's car. Thus receive an estimation of the size of thevacant parking place for other community members that will seek parkingin that area, for example.

Some exemplary embodiments of AVPPL may detect from the images, capturedby an AVPPL community member's camera, a license plate of a parked carnear a detected vacant parking place. This may assist to estimate thedetected vacant parking place's real size. An AVPPL embodiment mayutilize the known size of a standard license plate. According to thedetected amount of pixels it occupied within the camera's capturedpicture and known actual size of the license plate the AVPPL maycalculate the ratio between number of pixels and real area size.

According to the calculated ratio the AVPPL can determine the estimatedvacant place size by the detected amount of pixel the vacant placeoccupied within the AVPPL community member's camera captured picture.

Other exemplary embodiments may detect from an AVPPL community member'scamera a captured image of a parked car near a detected vacant parkingplace. An AVPPL embodiment may utilize the known size of a distancebetween standard car's wheels. According to the detected amount ofpixels the distance between the car's wheels occupied within thecamera's captured picture, the AVPPL may calculate the ratio betweennumber of pixels and real area size. According to the calculated ratiothe AVPPL can determine the estimated vacant place size by the detectedamount of pixel the vacant place occupied within the AVPPL communitymember's camera's captured picture.

Another exemplary embodiment of AVPPL may include image processing ofhow many pixels captures a car presented on a picture from a member'scamera. The car may be located nearby the vacant place. The AVPPL mayaccordingly determine by reference if the vacant parking place size issimilar or larger than the car captured near it. The determination maybe by comparing the number of pixels, for example.

Some exemplary embodiments may automatically detect the model of anearby parked car captured by a member's camera. Browse and find detailson the real size of that car. The details may be found in a databasestored in the AVPPL community members' smartphone and/or in an AVPPLserver. Accordingly a comparison between the number of pixels the parkedcar captured, together with info on its actual size, an assessment ofthe vacant-parking place may be determined according to the number ofpixels it captures, and so on.

Other techniques may be a combination of the above. Yet other exemplaryembodiments may use other techniques. The assessments of size may bedone during the calibration process and/or in real-time and/or everypre-determined period of time, for example.

Some exemplary embodiments may automatically detect the angle of whichthe smartphone camera is facing relative to the road by receiving thecamera angle from the smartphone internal compass and/or the G sensorand the road angle from the north from the GPS readings, subtracting theabove two angles may reveal the relative angle to the road.

The relative angle may be used to determine the distance of the vacantplace from the vehicle by using simple trigonometric calculation and byassuming the distance of the driving vehicle from the sidewalk.

Yet another exemplary embodiment may detect from the captured image themarks on a sidewalk. Marks such as, but not limited to: the blue andwhite marking which indicates allowed parking space in Israel, forexample. By using a predefined estimation of the blue and white actualsize, and counting the number of blue and white marking along the vacantparking place, an estimation of the real size of the vacant place may bedetermined.

An AVPPL community member may send information on his/her vehicle modeland/or smartphone model when registering for the first time, forexample. At the beginning of the drive the AVPPL community member mayenter his/her required destination.

Some exemplary AVPPL may further comprise a signaling from an AVPPLcommunity member when he/she is leaving a parking place. The informationmay be stored in a mutual database together with information on the sizeof the leaving vehicle. Further the AVPPL may reminder the AVPPLcommunity member to stop paying for the parking in case the parking feeis via a smartphone.

More information on the AVPPL methods and systems is disclosed inconjunction with the figures below.

Unless otherwise defined, all technical and/or scientific terms usedherein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinaryskill in the art to which the disclosure pertains. In case there is aconflict in the definition or meaning of a term, it is intended that thedefinitions presented within this specification are to be controlling.In addition, the materials, methods, and examples that are presentedthroughout the description are illustrative only and are not necessarilyintended to be limiting.

Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or to “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodimentof the disclosure, and multiple references to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment” should not be understood as necessarily referring to thesame embodiment or all embodiments.

Implementation of the method and/or system of embodiments of thedisclosure can involve performing or completing selected tasks manually,automatically, or a combination thereof. Moreover, according to actualinstrumentation and equipment of embodiments of the method and/or systemof the disclosure, several selected tasks could be implemented byhardware, by software or by firmware or by a combination thereof andwith or without employment of an operating system. Software may beembodied on a computer readable medium such as a read/write hard disc,CDROM, Flash memory, ROM, etc. In order to execute a certain task, asoftware program may be loaded into or accessed by an appropriateprocessor as needed.

These and other aspects of the disclosure will be apparent in view ofthe attached figures and detailed description. The foregoing summary isnot intended to summarize each potential embodiment or every aspect ofthe present disclosure, and other features and advantages of the presentdisclosure will become apparent upon reading the following detaileddescription of the embodiments with the accompanying drawings andappended claims.

Furthermore, although specific embodiments are described in detail toillustrate the inventive concepts to a person of ordinary skill in theart, such embodiments are susceptible to various modifications andalternative forms. Accordingly, the figures and written description arenot intended to limit the scope of the inventive concepts in any manner.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be understood andappreciated more fully from the following detailed description, taken inconjunction with the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified block diagram with relevant elements ofan exemplary portion of an AVPPL system, according to the teaching ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates a simplified block diagram with relevant elements ofan exemplary portion of an AVPPL system and apparatuses, according tothe teaching of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 a-b illustrates a simplified diagram with relevant elements of anexemplary portion of an embodiment of AVPPL determining a vacant parkingplace size, according to the teaching of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 a-c depicts schematic illustrations of simplified flowchart withrelevant blocks of an exemplary AVPPL method, according to the teachingof the present disclosure; and

FIG. 5 depicts schematic illustrations of simplified flowchart withrelevant blocks of an exemplary AVPPL method for detecting a vacantparking place, according to the teaching of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Turning now to the figures in which like numerals and/or labelsrepresent like elements throughout the several views, exemplaryembodiments of the present disclosure are described. For convenience,only some elements of the same group may be labeled with numerals. Thepurpose of the drawings is to describe exemplary embodiments and is notfor production purpose. Therefore features shown in the figures are forillustration purposes only and are not necessarily drawn to-scale andwere chosen only for convenience and clarity of presentation.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram with relevant elements of anexemplary portion of an AVPPL system 100. AVPPL system 100 may include aplurality of AVPPL community members 130 a-n. An AVPPL community member130 a-n may each have: a vehicle, a GPS, a camera, an online connectionto a server, and a connection to an AVPPL application. In someembodiments the AVPPL community member 130 a-n may utilize a smartphonecomprising: a GPS, a camera, an online connection to a server, and aconnection to an AVPPL application. AVPPL system 100 may further includeone or more networks 110 a-n, an application server 120, and a mutualdatabase 122. In some exemplary embodiments the server 120 may comprisethe mutual database 122.

The plurality of AVPPL community member 130 a-n may be associated viathe one or more networks 110 a-n to the application server 120 and/or tothe mutual database 122. In an exemplary embodiment, the applicationservers 120 and/or mutual database 122 may be located in a node of thenetwork 110 or in a terminal that receives several channels from accessports and, according to certain criteria, processes information anddistributes them.

The application server 120 may be an AVPPL application server, forexample. AVPPL application server is only one of many different networkservers that can implement the teachings of the present disclosure.Therefore the present disclosure should not be limited to AVPPLapplication server only. The server 120 may represent a single server ora combination of two or more server. The mutual database 122 mayrepresent a single mutual database or a combination of two or moremutual databases.

The network 110 may represent a single network or a combination of twoor more networks such as, but not limited to: cellular data network suchas Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), General Packet RadioService (GPRS), Internet, a circuit switched network, and so on.

An AVPPL community member 130 may be an entity on the network 110,capable of providing real-time two-way information (by his/hersmartphone manually or automatically for example) with other AVPPLcommunity member 130 and/or with the server 120 and/or with the mutualdatabase 122.

Exemplary information communicated between the AVPPL community member130 a-n and the server 120 and/or with the mutual database 122 mayinclude: video information, GPS information (time, velocity, location,etc), one or more detected and located vacant parking place, informationon detected and located vacant parking place, verifying the existence ofa prior detected and reported vacant place sent, etc.

An AVPPL community member's smartphone may have an online connection tothe server 120 and/or to the mutual database 122 via one of the network110 a-n.

Exemplary smartphones may be: APPLE iPhone, iPad, Samsung Galaxy series,and other smartphones using operating system such as but not limited to:iOS, ANDROID, WINDOWS MOBILE, SYMBIAN, and BLACKBERRY.

In some exemplary embodiments the AVPPL community member's 130 a-nsmartphone may further comprise: a computing core (CPU for example)together with an AVPPL application; one or more digital maps; a display(graphic, display for example); a G sensor; etc.

An AVPPL community member's smartphone missing one or more of the abovecomponents may be limited in the ways in which that AVPPL communitymember 130 a-n may participate in the AVPPL community.

The described portion of AVPPL system 100 comprises and describes onlythe relevant elements. Other sections of an exemplary embodiment of anAVPPL system 100 are not described. It will be appreciated by thoseskilled in the art that depending upon its configuration and the needsof the AVPPL system, each AVPPL system 100 may have other number ofAVPPL community member, networks, servers, and other components, etc.

However, for purposes of simplicity of understanding, three AVPPLcommunity members 130 a-n with three smartphones which comprise an AVPPLapplication, a plurality of networks 110 a-n with one server 120 and onemutual database 122 are shown.

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram with relevant elements of an exemplaryportion of an AVPPL system 200. Alternative embodiments of the AVPPLsystem 200 may have other components and/or may not include all of thecomponents shown in FIG. 2. AVPPL system 200 may comprise a server 280,a network 260, and a plurality of exemplary AVPPL community member'ssmartphone 210 a-n.

Some exemplary embodiments of an AVPPL community member's smartphone 210a-n may comprise: an Input/output Interface (I/O) 228. The Input/outputInterface (I/O) 228 may act as an interface between the AVPPL communitymember's smartphone 210 internal modules and the server's 280 internalmodules and/or interface to another AVPPL community member's smartphone210 a-n, for example.

In one direction the Input/output Interface (I/O) 228 can getinformation from one or more of the plurality of AVPPL communitymember's smartphone 210 and/or from the server 280 via the network 260,for example. The Input/output Interface (I/O) 228 can deliver thedifferent information toward the relevant modules/units of that AVPPLcommunity member's smartphone 210.

In some exemplary embodiments the Input/output Interface (I/O) 228 mayprocess obtained information. Accordingly the Input/output Interface(I/O) 228 may decide toward which module/unit to transfer theinformation. Further some exemplary Input/output Interface (I/O) 228 mayconvert the information format to a required communication standardrequired by the receiving module/unit.

In the other direction the Input/output Interface (I/O) 228 can transferinformation from the AVPPL community member's smartphone 210 internalmodules/units to one or more other AVPPL community member's smartphone210 and/or toward the server 280 via network 260. Input/output Interface(I/O) 228 may receive separate streams from the various units of thatAVPPL community member's smartphone 210. Some exemplary Input/outputInterface (I/O) 228 may convert the information format to a requiredcommunication standard required by the receiving entity.

An exemplary embodiment of an AVPPL community member's smartphone 210may also comprise a data collector and arranger module 226. The datacollector and arranger module 226 may also be associated to a memorystorage (not shown in drawing). Exemplary embodiments of a datacollector and arranger module 226 may collect and arrange informationgotten from other internal modules of the smartphone 210 and/or fromother AVPPL community member's smartphone 210 and/or from server 280.

Exemplary information may be: information on vacant parking places(location, size, fees, time, etc.); video or still images of one or moresides of roads; digital maps of the street or the road of where theallowed parking spots are; GPS inputs (time, vehicle velocity, location,etc.); routes, and so on.

The data collector and arranger module 226 may arrange the informationaccording different parameters. Exemplary parameters may be: theirrelevance, the time obtained, the type of information (GPS location,pictures, etc.), and so on. The data collector and arranger module 226may mark by a time stamped different information, for example. It mayalso report to other AVPPL community member's smartphone 210 and/or theserver 280 that a reported vacant place is no longer vacant if the AVPPLcommunity member decides to park there. The reported may be sent with atime stamp, for example.

An exemplary embodiment of an AVPPL community member's smartphone 210may also comprise a GPS module 240 and a camera 242. The GPS module 240may provide different inputs. Inputs such as, but not limited to: thelocation and location accuracy of the AVPPL community member's, input ontime, the velocity of the AVPPL community member's, the number of GPSsatellite, etc.

The camera 242 may record pictures and/or videos of one or more sides ofthe road the AVPPL community member's is passing through. Theinformation from the GPS 240 and/or camera 242 may be used by internalmodules of the AVPPL community member's smartphone 210; and/or may beobtained for use by one or more other AVPPL community member'ssmartphone 210 a-n; and/or may be obtained for use by the server 280.

Some exemplary embodiment of an AVPPL community member's smartphone 210may comprise an image processor 230, for example. Exemplary embodimentsof an image processor 230 may get images (picture stills and/or video)from the camera 242. Further the image processor 230 may get images fromother AVPPL community member's smartphone 210 and/or from server 280,via the Input/output Interface (I/O) 228, for example. The imageprocessor 230 may process the image(s) and output different information.

Exemplary information may be the outlines of images. The image processor230 may detect different obstacles in an image that are not required fordetermining size of parking. Exemplary obstacles may be: car wipers, manstanding in street, and so on. Accordingly the image processor 230 maydelete the obstacles from the images. Furthermore the image processor230 may process the image and detect: vehicles, colors, trees, and soon.

Thus the image processor may output if a side walk is in the color thatpermits parking or not, for example. The image processor 230 may processthe image and detect empty space between vehicles, and so on. The imageprocessor 230 may detect that the image is too dark or too bright and tosend commands toward the camera 242 to change the camera internalsettings to improve the picture quality, such as aperture size and/orshutter time for example.

Accordingly the image processor 230 may output data and/or images and/orprocessed images toward different modules of the AVPPL communitymember's smartphone 210 itself. Different modules such as, but notlimited to a parking size determiner 236. The image processor 230 mayoutput data and/or images and/or processed images toward other AVPPLcommunity member's smartphone 210 and/or toward a server 280 via theInput/output Interface (I/O) 228, for example.

The image processor 230 may get the internal parameters of the camera242 such as its focal point and aperture size, for example, asparameters for determining vacant parking size.

An exemplary embodiment of a parking size determiner 236 may obtaininputs from different modules of the AVPPL community member's smartphone210 itself. Exemplary other modules may be: image processor 230, GPS240, camera 242, data collector and arranger 226, etc. An exemplaryembodiment of a parking size determiner 236 may obtain inputs from otherAVPPL community member's smartphone 210 and/or from a server 280 via theInput/output Interface (I/O) 228, for example.

The parking size determiner 236 may determine the size of an empty spacein an image, for example. The parking size determiner 236 may use one ormore techniques to determine the size of an empty space. Exemplarytechniques may determine the parking size: according to number ofpixels; according to reference to other objects in the image; accordingto geometric of the items in an image; and so on.

The parking size determiner 236 may also utilize information gatheredfrom a calibration phase made earlier, if any, and/or take part in acalibration phase, and so on. The parking size determiner 236 may alsooutput the data and/or images and/or processed images toward other AVPPLcommunity member's smartphone 210 and/or to a server 280 via theInput/output Interface (I/O) 228, for example.

An exemplary embodiment of an AVPPL community member's smartphone 210may also comprise a controller and decision module 220. The controllerand decision module 220 may obtain inputs and/or send inputs from/to theAVPPL community member himself via: an input/output interface (I/O) 250;and/or a display 256 (may be a touch screen display, for example); by anaudio module 258 (voice commands, for example).

Exemplary display inputs and given by the community member himself mayutilize a using a projected on-screen keyboard or a map, for example.The community member may type or pinpoint his destination. He/she mayfurther add a requested maximum-distance of a located vacant parkingplace from the required destination.

The controller and decision module 220 may obtain inputs from differentmodules in the AVPPL community member's smartphone 210 itself; and/orfrom another AVPPL community member's smartphone 210 a-n; and/or fromserver 280. Exemplary inputs may be processed images from an imageprocessor 230, vacant parking size from a parking size determiner 236,different inputs from GPS 240 (time, velocity locations, etc.),requested destination from different AVPPL community member 210, maps,information on vacant parking place, and so on.

The controller and decision module 220 may send commands toward one ormore different modules in the AVPPL community member's smartphone 210itself; and/or toward other AVPPL community member's smartphones 210;and/or toward the server 280, for example. Exemplary commands may besent toward a path determiner 238, for example. Exemplary command maybe: to determine a path from the location of the AVPPL communitymember's smartphone 210 (according to GPS 240, for example) to point Awhich is where a proper vacant parking place has been detected andlocated.

Other exemplary commands may be: to send information regarding the pathto a vacant parking place and/or to display a map with the marked pathon it to the required AVPPL community member's smartphone 210, forexample. The information may be displayed on a display 256 of an AVPPLcommunity member's smartphone 210; and/or may be given by audio via anaudio module 258, for example. And or a combination of them.

Some exemplary embodiments of an AVPPL community member's smartphone 210may comprise a gyro and/or g-sensor 246 in order to determine theplacement of the camera, for example. The information may be passedtoward the image processor 230 and or the parking size determiner 236,for example.

The input/output interface to user 250 may also be used by AVPPLcommunity member. Exemplary use may be entering information on vehiclesize and/or vehicle type; required destination location; request toenter an AVPPL community service; etc.

An exemplary embodiment of a server 280 may comprise and/or beassociated to one or more mutual database 284. An exemplary embodimentof a mutual database 284 may comprise information obtained fromdifferent AVPPL community member's smartphone 210 and/or from citycouncils, etc. Information such as, but not limited to: images with timestamps, info on general parking places in the city (location, size,fees, time allowed for public parking and for residence only, etc.),etc.

An exemplary embodiment of a server 280 may comprise a general processor282 that may manage the one or more mutual databases, and/or processinformation received by different AVPPL community member's smartphone210 and/or from city councils, for example. A general processor 282 mayprocess gotten images, gotten GPS inputs, requested parking place, etc.Accordingly a general processor 282 may determine paths for one or moreAVPPL community member and send the information toward the relevantAVPPL community member's smartphone 210, and so on.

The network 260 may represent a single network or a combination of twoor more networks such as, but not limited to: cellular network,Internet, and so on.

FIG. 3 a illustrates a simplified diagram with relevant elements of anexemplary portion of an embodiment of AVPPL method and system 300 a ofdetermining a vacant parking place size. Exemplary AVPPL method andsystem 300 a may include a driving vehicle 310 comprising a smartphone312. Wherein the smartphone's camera has an open view to at least partof a street 302 the vehicle is driving through. In the exemplaryembodiment there are two static reference items 320 and 330 in thestreet 302 with a vacant parking place between them, and a side walk350. The two or more reference static items 320 and 330 may be: parkedcars, stationary trash container, trees, pillars, etc.

The smartphone 312 may include: a camera, a GPS, and an onlineconnection to one or more servers, for example. The smartphone's cameramay be facing to the front window of the car capturing the side of thestreet 302 with the side walk 350 where both reference items 320 and 330are placed.

In an exemplary embodiment the smartphone's camera 312 may capture (byvideo and/or by still pictures) the reference items 320 and 330 whilethe vehicle 310 is driving. The smartphone's 312 GPS may give timestamps to a few of the captured images (video and/or stills) by thecamera. The velocity of the car may be deduced by inputs from thesmartphone's 310 GPS, for example. Inputs such as but not limited to aplurality of locations with timestamps.

Accordingly a processing unit (in the smartphone 310 itself and/or in anassociated server via an online connection to the smartphone 310 or acombination of them) may get the inputs from the smartphone's 310 GPSand camera 312. Process the information and calculate the distance D 344between both reference items 320 and 330 according to the two timestamps when the ear passed reference items 320 and 330 (at point X andY, for example) and the average velocity of the vehicle 310 when drivingbetween the reference items.

Furthermore the processing unit may image process the images from thecamera and detect the markings on the sidewalk 350 in the vacant area(between point X and Y). Exemplary markings may be alternating blue andwhite markings that represent parking information in certain countries.According to the colors, for example, the image processor may determineif the parking is legal and/or if needs to be paid.

Furthermore, from a prior knowing of the real size of each blue-whitemarking, an exemplary AVPPL may deduce the size of the vacant parkingplace (D) 344, by counting the number of markings between X and Y andmultiplying by the real size of the blue white marks.

The distance D 344 (between point X and Y) together with its location(according to the smartphone's 310 GPS, for example) and together withthe information on the fees (taken from city councils, for example) maythen be obtained by different entities. Exemplary entities may be:different AVPPL community members seeking vacant parking place for avehicle in size D 344 or less; and/or mutual databases; and/or servers;etc. Furthermore the processing unit may create a conversion between thenumber of pixels and the calculated length D for future use, forexample.

FIG. 3 b illustrates a simplified diagram with relevant elements of anexemplary portion of an embodiment of an AVPPL method and system 300 bof converting image's pixels to cm. AVPPL method and system 300 b mayinclude a vehicle 3100 comprising a smartphone 3120, and at least onestatic reference items 3200 in a street 3002. The reference item 3200may be a car, for example.

The smartphone 3120 may include: a camera, a GPS, and an onlineconnection to one or more servers, for example. The smartphone 3120 maybe associated to the front window of the car facing the side of thestreet 3020 where the item 3200 is located.

In an exemplary embodiment the smartphone's 3120 camera may video and/ortake pictures of the reference 3200 items while the vehicle 3100 isdriving. A processing unit (associated to the smartphone and/or to aserver) may image process the images from the smartphone's 3120 camera.If the processing unit detects that the reference item 3200 is a vehicleit may count the number of pixels that vehicle 3200 captured in theimage (D pixels 3440, for example). Accordingly the processing unit maydefine that the number of pixels defining a size of a vehicle detectedin future pictures on the about same angle 3460 from the camera plane,is at least the number of D pixels the image captured.

In some exemplary embodiments the processing unit may further identifythe type of vehicle 3200 and may utilize a database (associated to thesmartphone or server, for example) with information on the exact size ofdetected the vehicle 3200. Thus the conversion from pixels to cm may bemore accurate.

The above information may be used later on when searching for a vacantparking place in wanted areas using the smartphone's camera 3120, forexample.

FIG. 4 a depicts schematic illustrations of simplified flowchart withrelevant acts of an exemplary AVPPL method 400 for providing inputs ondetected and located vacant parking places. In some exemplaryembodiments AVPPL method 400 may be executed by a server. In otherexemplary embodiment the AVPPL method 400 may be executed by the AVPPLcommunity member's smartphone. Yet other exemplary embodiments may be acombination of both.

Method 400 may begin by allocating 404 different sources, andsetting/resetting 404 different counters. Exemplary sources may bemutual databases, online, information on the AVPPL community members,information on parking from city councils, etc.

Method 400 may wait 406 until a request for a parking place is obtained406. When a request for a parking is obtained 406, method 400 may verify408 if the AVPPL community member requesting has contributed informationto the AVPPL community. The contribution may be during the last 24hours, for example. In some exemplary embodiment an AVPPL communitymember does not have to contribute before seeking parking.

If 408 the AVPPL community member requestor has contributed then method400 may proceed to act 416. If 408 not, then method 400 may get 410information on the AVPPL community member. Information such as, but notlimited to: type/size of his/her vehicle; the AVPPL community membersmartphone's cellular network; the AVPPL community member's type ofsmartphone; etc. The above type of information may be entered by theAVPPL community member and/or be automatically downloaded from his/hersmartphone.

Next a calibration phase may begin 412. A calibration phase maycomprise: adjusting the location of the camera, adjusting the AVPPLcommunity member's vehicle velocity, etc. Next method 400 may gather 412information from the camera and/or processed information from thesmartphone of the AVPPL community member regarding the street he/she isdriving through. In some exemplary embodiments the collecting phase maybe for a predefined period of time before the user may be entitled toreceive information on vacant parking place close to his/her requireddestination.

After a pre-defined time has passed 414, method 400 may get 416 therequired destination of the AVPPL community member (point B, forexample). Next method 400 may proceed to act 420 FIG. 4 b. At act 420method 400 may search 420 for information on vacant parking place inclose proximity to the AVPPL community member's required destination(point B). Close proximity may be: a few meters, a few streets, and soon. The proximity radius may differ by time and/or location and/or AVPPLcommunity member's preference, and so on. Method 400 may search 420 inmutual databases or in other AVPPL community members' smartphones, forexample.

In some embodiments method 400 may limit the search to vacant parkingplace according to the size of the AVPPL community member's vehicle.Even further method 400 may limit the search to other requiredparameters that an AVPPL community member wishes. Exemplary otherrequired information may be: costs of the parking place, its proximityto destination, etc.

If an appropriate vacant parking place has been found 422, then method400 may proceed to act 428. If 422 not, then method 400 may check 424 ifother AVPPL community members are in area close to the AVPPL communitymembers' required destination, and get video and/or pictures and/or dataon vacant parking places from them.

If a proper vacant parking place has been found 426, then theinformation may be sent 428 toward the AVPPL community member. Theinformation may be sent by audio and/or by display on the AVPPLcommunity member's smartphone, for example. The AVPPL community membermay be asked if he/she wants to stay online 430 and receive morerelevant and/or updated information if will be found. If yes 430, thenmethod 400 may proceed to act 450 FIG. 4 c. If 430 not, then method 400ends.

Returning to act 426, if no proper vacant parking place is found for theAVPPL community member, then method 400 may check if the AVPPL communitymember is still searching for 440 a vacant parking place. If not 440,then method 400 may end. If 440 yes, then method 400 may wait till atimeout pass 442. After time out pass method 400 may check 444 forinformation from parking lots, for example, and return to act 424.

Turning to act 450 FIG. 4 c, method 400 may verify if the parking placeis still vacant 450. If not 450, then the method 400 may inform 460 theAVPPL community member that the parking place has been caught byanother, and method 400 may return to act 420 FIG. 4 b. If 450 theparking place is still vacant method 400 may search for a better vacantparking place. Better may be according to different criteria. Exemplarycriteria may be: closer to required destination, free of charge parking,larger size parking place, etc. Method 400 may search 452 in mutualdatabases; inquire from other AVPPL community members' smartphones, etc.

If 454 a better parking place has been found method 400 may check ifthere is enough 456 time to change the AVPPL community member route. If456 not, then method 400 does not change the route of the AVPPLcommunity member and method 400 ends. If 456 there is enough time tochange route method 400 may update the user 458 and go to act 428 FIG. 4b.

Returning to act 454. If no better parking place has been found, method400 may verify if the AVPPL community member is still searching 462 fora vacant parking place (if user has not logged off, for example). If 462not, then method 400 may end. If 462 yes, then method 400 may check if atimeout has passed 464. If yes, method 400 may end. If 464 not thenmethod 400 may verify if the AVPPL community member wants to stay onlineand receive more updated information. If 468 not, then method 400 mayend. If 468 yes, then method 400 may return to act 450.

FIG. 5 depicts a schematic illustration of a simplified flowchart withrelevant blocks of an exemplary AVPPL method 500 for detecting a vacantparking place. In some exemplary embodiments AVPPL method 500 may beexecuted by a server. In other exemplary embodiment the AVPPLapplication method 500 may be executed by an AVPPL community member'ssmartphone. Yet other exemplary embodiments may be a combination ofboth.

The information on vacant parking place may be sent toward a mutualdatabase, and/or one or to one or more servers, and or one or more AVPPLcommunity member, for example. Method 500 may begin by allocating 502resources and setting/resetting 502 counters. Exemplary resources may beAVPPL community member's camera, image processors, mutual databases,etc.

Next a calibration process may be made 504. The calibration process maycomprise detecting 504 an average size vehicle in a gotten video and/orpicture image. Accordingly determining 504 the number of pixels thatrepresent an average size vehicle. The calibration process may be doneby the smartphone of an AVPPL community member, and/or by a server forexample.

Next method 500 may process images received from the same AVPPLcommunity member. Method 500 may search for 508 a free space along asidewalk of a street the AVPPL community member vehicle is passingthrough and capturing with his/her camera, for example. When a freespace has been detected 508, then the number of pixels occupied by thefree space may be compared to the number of pixels that represent anaverage size vehicle.

If 508 the free space is bigger or equal to the average size vehiclethen method 500 may verify 510 if it is a legal parking place.Verification may be according to the colors marking the sidewalk nearthe vacant parking place, and/or according to data from database, and/oraccording to data from city council database, etc. If 510 the parkingspace is not legal then method 500 may return to act 506.

If 510 the parking space is legal method 500 may verify 512 if theparking costs money. If 512 the parking costs money method 500 mayupdate 516 the AVPPL community member on the vacant parking placelocation and fees. And method 500 may end. If 512 the parking does notcost money method 500 may update 514 the AVPPL community member on thevacant parking place location. And method 500 may end.

In the description and claims of the present disclosure, each of theverbs, “comprise”, “include” and “have”, and conjugates thereof, areused to indicate that the object or objects of the verb are notnecessarily a complete listing of members, components, elements, orparts of the subject or subjects of the verb and further, all of thelisted objects are not necessarily required in all embodiments.

As used herein, the singular form “a”, “an” and “the” include pluralreferences unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. For example,the term “a material” or “at least one material” may include a pluralityof materials, including mixtures thereof.

In this disclosure the words “unit”, “element”, “device”, and/or“module” are used interchangeably. Anything designated as a unit,element, device and/or module may be a stand-alone unit or a specializedmodule. A unit, element, and/or module may be modular or have modularaspects allowing it to be easily removed and replaced with anothersimilar unit, element, device, and/or module. Each unit, element,device, and/or module may be any one of, or any combination of,software, hardware, and/or firmware. Software of a logical module can beembodied on a computer readable medium such as a read/write hard disc,CDROM, Flash memory, ROM, etc. In order to execute a certain task asoftware program can be loaded to an appropriate processor as needed.

The present disclosure has been described using detailed descriptions ofembodiments thereof that are provided by way of example and are notintended to limit the scope of the disclosure. The described embodimentscomprise different features, not all of which are required in allembodiments of the disclosure. Some embodiments of the presentdisclosure utilize only some of the features or possible combinations ofthe features. Many other ramifications and variations are possiblewithin the teaching of the embodiments comprising different combinationsof features noted in the described embodiments.

It is appreciated that certain features of the invention, which are, forclarity, described in the context of separate embodiments, may also beprovided in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, variousfeatures of the invention, which are, for brevity, described in thecontext of a single embodiment, may also be provided separately or inany suitable sub-combination or as suitable in any other describedembodiment of the invention.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the presentdisclosure is not limited by what has been particularly shown anddescribed herein above. Rather the scope of the invention is defined bythe claims that follow.

1-42. (canceled)
 43. An automatic-vacant-parking-place locator (AVPPL),comprising: a server; a plurality of AVPPL community members' vehicles;a plurality of wireless mobile devices, each comprising a camera, alocation analyzer and an online connection to the server, each of thewireless mobile devices is associated with one of the vehicles andplaced in the associated vehicle so that the camera can capture at leastone side of a road the vehicle passes through, the location analyzer isconfigured to detect location data about the associated vehicle; aprocessor configured to receive from one or more of the wireless mobiledevices one or more camera images of at least one side of a road theassociated vehicles passes through and location data from thecorresponding location analyzers and to detect and locate a vacantparking place along the road for another AVPPL community member seekingto park along said road by processing the obtained images and thelocation data and to provide based on the obtained data processedinformation comprising the detecting and locating of the vacant parkingplace; a mutual database associated with the server and configured toobtain the processed information from the processor and to provide theprocessed information via the online connection to the wireless mobiledevice associated with the vehicle of the AVPPL community member seekingto park along said road.
 44. The automatic-vacant-parking-place locatorof claim 43, wherein the location analyzer comprises a globalpositioning system (GPS) receiver.
 45. Theautomatic-vacant-parking-place locator of claim 43, wherein at leastsome modules of the processor is associated with the server.
 46. Theautomatic-vacant-parking-place locator of claim 43, wherein at leastsome modules of the processor is comprised in the wireless mobiledevices.
 47. The automatic-vacant-parking-place locator of claim 43,wherein at least some of the images obtained by the camera of at leastone of the wireless mobile devices are video images.
 48. Theautomatic-vacant-parking-place locator of claim 43, wherein theprocessed information obtained by the processor comprise at least one ofa list comprising: determination of parking rules on the detectedlocated vacant parking place, the location of a located vacant parkingplace, the size of a located vacant parking place, the velocity of thevehicle, the time a located vacant parking place has been detected and atime passed from the time the parking was detected and located.
 49. Theautomatic-vacant-parking-place locator of claim 43, wherein theprocessor is further configured to determine of parking rules on thedetected located vacant parking place by fetching data from a citycouncil.
 50. The automatic-vacant-parking-place locator of claim 43,wherein the processor is configured to detect and locate the vacantparking place size according to at least one of number of pixels orreference to objects with known size near the detected and locatedvacant parking place.
 51. The automatic-vacant-parking-place locator ofclaim 43, wherein the processed information is displayed on a display ofthe wireless mobile device associated with the vehicle of the AVPPLcommunity member seeking to park along said road.
 52. Theautomatic-vacant-parking-place locator of claim 43, wherein theprocessed information is utilized to route and guide an AVPPL communitymember toward a located vacant parking place in a required area.
 53. Anautomatic-vacant-parking-place locating (AVPPL) method comprising:receiving by a processor one or more camera images of at least one sideof a road from one or more wireless mobile devices associated withvehicles passing through the road and location data from correspondinglocation analyzers, wherein the vehicles are AVPPL community members'vehicles and wherein each of the mobile devices comprises a camera, alocation analyzer and an online connection to a server, each of thewireless mobile devices is associated with one of the vehicles andplaced in the associated vehicle so that the camera can capture at leastone side of a road the vehicle passes through, the location analyzer isconfigured to detect location data about the associated vehicle;detecting and locating by the processor a vacant parking place along theroad for another AVPPL community member seeking to park along said roadby: processing the obtained images and location data; providing based onthe obtained data processed information comprising the detecting andlocating of the vacant parking place; and obtaining, by a mutualdatabase associated with the server, the processed information from theprocessor and providing, by a mutual database, the processed informationvia the online connection to the wireless mobile device associated withthe vehicle of the AVPPL community member seeking to park along saidroad.
 54. The method of claim 53, wherein the location analyzercomprises a global positioning system (GPS) receiver.
 55. The method ofclaim 53, wherein at least some of the processor operations areperformed in the server.
 56. The method of claim 53, wherein at leastsome of the processor operations are performed in the wireless mobiledevices.
 57. The method of claim 53, wherein at least some of the imagesobtained by the camera of at least one of the wireless mobile devicesare video images.
 58. The method of claim 53, wherein the processedinformation obtained by the processor comprise at least one of a listcomprising: determination of parking rules on the detected locatedvacant parking place, the location of a located vacant parking place,the size of a located vacant parking place, the velocity of the vehicle,the time a located vacant parking place has been detected and a timepassed from the time the parking was detected and located.
 59. Themethod of claim 53, further comprising determining of parking rules onthe detected located vacant parking place by fetching data from a citycouncil.
 60. The method of claim 53, further comprising detecting andlocating the vacant parking place size according to at least one ofnumber of pixels or reference to objects with known size near thedetected and located vacant parking place.
 61. The method of claim 53,further comprising displaying the processed information on a display ofthe wireless mobile device associated with the vehicle of the AVPPLcommunity member seeking to park along said road.
 62. The method ofclaim 53, further comprising utilizing the processed information toroute and guide an AVPPL community member toward a located vacantparking place in a required area.